Woodlands and Forestry

woodlandsWe all, instinctively, want to protect our woodlands. We find comfort in our native trees – the Ash of Cumbria, the coppiced hazel and thick-girthed sessile Oak under the cliffs and caves of the Eden between Armathwaite and Wetheral. We are interested in the ancient woodland of the Fairy Tables along the Black Lyme, because its soil – undisturbed for hundreds of years – preserves unusual lichen and insects.

Timber processing brings 600 million pounds a year to Penrith and the Border, and provides employment (through BSW, Jenkinson’s and others) for 2,500 people – more than a third of the total number of forestry and wood-processing jobs in England. And it is a good industry.

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Rory’s think-tank manifesto for Penrith and the Border’s Woodlands

A local think-tank, formed by Rory, has submitted an ambitious proposal for Penrith and the Border’s woodlands to the Independent Forestry Panel (IFP) on the occasion of its visit to Cumbria. The think-tank’s ambitious “fifty-year vision” for Penrith and the Border, includes ensuring an increase in commercial wood supply; that investment in apprenticeships and education […]

forestry and woodlands advisory group

Rory  held the second meeting of his forestry and woodlands advisory group last Friday 20th February, attended by representatives from public and private sector organisations, including the Forestry Commission, the Friends of the Lake District, Natural England, the University of Cumbria, the National Trust, and the processing industry. The discussion covered the Independent Forestry Panel’s […]

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Woodland Trust

Rory met with Heather Swift, site manager, and Lee Bruce of the Woodland Trust at Miltonrigg Woods near Brampton on Friday, to discuss the charity’s work in woodland conservation and its plans to pay tribute to Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee this year with the planting of 6 million […]

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penrith and the border forestry advisory panel

Rory held a meeting on Saturday with key constituency figures from the forestry and woodlands sector, to discuss strengthening Penrith and the Border’s input into the government’s Independent Forestry Panel, currently formulating its advice to the Secretary of State to be presented in Spring 2012. At the meeting, which was attended by representatives from the […]

woodlands tour

Rory spent a day with the Forestry Commission investigating its role in the management of woodlands in his constituency. Following a tense national debate on the issue earlier this year, Rory has now met with representatives of Save Lakeland’s Forests, the National Trust, and the Forestry Commission in an attempt to get a detailed picture of forestry operations in Penrith and […]

forestry debate

I am writing this having been in the Forestry debate today in the House of Commons but having had to step out to take a call from one of many constituents who have been contacting me over the last few days to express their concern about the forestry commission. Yesterday, I was one of a […]